railmotor castings for Emma Victoria

hello everyone,with a view to constructing emma Victoria as featured in model engineer.the writer of the exellent articles suggests using railmotor cylinder castings.the reeves catalogue feature railmotor 1,2,and 3 versions . the castings for each version being a different price . can anyone tell me if the casting are significantly different and which version is the one to use as the writer of the series does not mention this many thanks

the 5"g RAILMOTOR cylinder castings are all identical, though differ slightly when machining. incidentally i think the cylinder bore of EMMA VICTORIA to be far too big. 1 1/16" bore would be quite sufficient.

cheers,

julian

thanks Julian for the clarification and food for thought

Hi Kevin, I too am building Emma (see posts 'discussions on articles in ME'

I looked at ready made cylinder castings and was horrified at the cost so decided to go the fabricated route, not actually started yet though. I am just finishing the pump which was also fabricated and the work went quite well.

I also looked at castings versus fabricated wheels and decided I liked the appearance of the Railmotor cast versions better so splashed out on those, price a bit more bearable than the cylinders.

I am not knowledgeable enough to comment on Julian's statement on cylinder bore size but I have heard that the engine runs very nicely.

If you look at posts by 'Hobby Nut' he has put on some photos of his work on Emma, although not heard from him for some time.

This is my first engine build so it is interesting to hear from others, I have put on a few posts which you may find useful.

Good luck

Bill D.

my first loco was a RAILMOTOR started when i was 16, cycling up to don's house in adgestone to inspect his No.1 RAILMOTOR and buy the plans and castings many moons ago. don advised the No.2 chassis with the No.1 boiler, which advice i followed. it proved to be a wonderful loco and would steam on a candle. the EMMA VICTORIA has certain design similarities but over sized cylinder bores. ok if you build the loco badly and drive it badly and potter around on 30 psi, but otherwise the cylinder bore size is excessive for the adhesive weight at working pressure and size of the boiler etc.

just my personal observations on a small 0-4-0T loco in 5"g

cheers,

julian

Edited By julian atkins on 10/01/2014 23:16:27

Edited By julian atkins on 10/01/2014 23:16:52

quite a few posts from Bill Dawes about EMMA VICTORIA and consideration of the construction series in ME leads me to the conclusion that it is nothing like as well designed as Don Youngs's RAILMOTOR in 1968/69!

so much for progress!

cheers,

julian

Julian and others. My posts re Emma do not signify any criticism on my part of the engine or series. I suspect they are due mainly to my inexperience. I am sure a lot of these queries would be sorted in a trice, merely by past experience of building locos and ME in general, by Julian and other experienced model engineers.

I have been in engineering for over 50 years so have a pragmatic view of these things, any long running series is bound to have a few errors creep in.

I am getting there however, each step is another step up the learning curve.

Still having said that, as regards to the actual engine design, the proof of the pudding.............

Bill D.